Category Archives: Features

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The Emirates Air Line (as we must call it by the law of corporate sponsorship) has been open since June 2012. A short jaunt linking the O2 arena with the Excel Conference centre at the Royal Docks, the cable car has proved controversial: confusing some and baffling others. So just how many Londoners are commuting to work like a villain from a bad James Bond film?

During the Olympics it reportedly got 70,000 visitors a week, but in those heady days Londoners believed they could fly and there was wiff-waff at the Excel Centre. Annoyingly, TFL figures don’t stretch back that far, but numbers hovered around 40,000 in the months afterwards, glimpsing their former glory in the first week of November, when 70,704 took to the sky.

Well we’ve done the leg-work and found all the stations in zones 1 & 2 that are quicker to walk than to tube! Of the 62 stations in zone 1, 42 have stations nearby that’re quicker to walk to, making them potentially useless to you! Yay!

Click “View Larger Map” below to see the full map and list of stations.

Are there ones we’ve missed? Comment below in the usual place.

And check out this map from 2003 which gives quick walking distances on Harry Beck’s diagram.

The most pointless Instagrams of St Pancras

As you know, St Pancras holds a special place in my heart because it is my commuter station. Which also happens to house the Eurostar, a champagne bar, designer shops, a piano and art installations. What does this mean? Photos Instagrammed to within an inch of their lives. Enjoy.

It’s no secret that we at London Locomotion enjoy some commuter complaining. It’s a time to revel in our community, to stand arm in arm with our fellow tube-goers (like we have a choice) and say: “Hey TFL, go eff yo’selves!…luv ya really xxx”

But it seems that, when push comes to shove (as it always does), we commuters eschew the official channels of complaint. According to TFL records, they receive very few complaints about the London Underground. Like, very, very few. In fact, 2012 saw just was 2.27 people per 100,000 complaining for the full year. Now, call us crazy – loco even – but this just seems pitiful. Come on, commuters, think about the delays! The smell! The rats! Rise up and complain, for god’s sake!

In the meantime, here’s a pretty graph to show you how ungrumbletastic our community really is. And if that doesn’t stir you, think about this….CYCLISTS moan more than us. And they’re supposed to be hippy happy all the bloody time.

Meanwhile, as a means of inspiration, here are the top reasons for complaint made to TFL about the Tube. ‘Other’ takes the biggest slice. I’m hoping that includes at least one person complaining about the lack of tube-complaining.

As I hail from the sunny climes of Luton town, it also happens to be my commuter station. And, just sometimes, I wish it was a bit more, you know, normal. Restful shades of mud brown; just one escalator to get to the surface. They’re simple desires, but not ones that are likely to be fulfilled. And that’s why if you commute, St Pancras is less ‘breathtaking’ and more something to be endured…

It’s a Eurostar terminal, so there are endless gaggles of tourists, suitcases to trip over and romantic couples swooning on their way to Paris. When all you’ve got to look forward to is 40 minutes jammed under a predatory male’s sweaty armpit and a lasagna for one.

Photo: stpancras.com

Similarly, St Pancras has posh shops and a champagne bar that you have to walk past to get from the tube station to the National Rail platforms, meaning you have to dash past shiny glass shop fronts full of beautiful things you will never be able to afford. And, let’s face it, you never get to St Pancras early enough to shop there.

The main concourse is ginormous, with people heading in all different directions like sheep on LSD. The result? Clashes worthy of Formula 1.

Photo: guardian.co.uk

Endless Instagramming of ‘gorgeous’, ‘stunning’, etc., etc., St Pancras. As if three million people hadn’t noticed it before that – gasp – the station has a roof.

Epic strolls to the Tube worthy of the London Marathon. It’s so long you suspect that St Pancras is colluding in secret government plans to make all commuters walk halfway to their destinations before allowing them on public transport.

Photo: geograph.org.uk

The pianos on the main concourse. Well, the last thing you need after a stressful day at the office is a tourist tipsy on overpriced champagne attempting to bash out Chopsticks for the twelfth time. If one of those pianos could speak, it would surely moan, “Did any of you get past grade 2 piano?”

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Every morning is spent nuzzling a stranger’s armpit. Your carriage is full of familiar faces, but you don’t know their names. You live so far away from the office the Daily Mail are running a campaign against you.